Hasta La Gadget!

Make no mistake, Project Glass dominated the Google IO 2012 keynote, with a blockbuster entrance worthy of a James Bond film, and the shock news that the wearable is actually up for preorder. Google’s Sergey Brin interrupted the presentation with news that Glass-wearing skydivers were floating in a blimp above the Moscone Center, and would be jumping down while live-streaming through a Google+ Hangout. Check out the must-see video after the cut!

The skydivers were met by stunt bike riders, who passed a Project Glass unit to abseilers, who handed it to more bikers that delivered it to Brin on-stage. He then called up some friends from the Glass development team to flesh out Google’s vision for the headset, in what was increasingly sounding like a sales pitch.

That suspicion proved well-founded in fact, when Brin revealed that Google would be taking preorders for the Project Glass Explorer Edition at IO this week. Available for $1,500 and expected to ship in early 2013, the headset doesn’t come cheap but already developers are flocking to sign up.

Of course, no Google keynote would be complete without a little anti-Apple snark, and it was left to Project Glass to highlight quite how much better looking at data in a natural way out of the corner of your eye is, compared to stabbing frantically at a tiny phone screen.

Google IO 2012: Project Glass wrap-up is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Sergey Brin briefly pulled out a light blue prototype of Google Glass whilst on stage at Google I/O, and as it turns out, those are evidently the latest and greatest models that the company is willing to wear around. We ran into social exec Vic Gundotra after this morning’s keynote, only to find him donning precisely the same set that was teased on stage. We asked if the blue was just part of Google’s experimentation with coloring Glass, and he chuckled while confessing that he wasn’t authorized to speak further about the project or its ambitions. Still, the man looks good in blue. And something tells us you would, too.

Photos of Google’s Vic Gundotra wearing the latest, blue-hued Glass prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s Project Glass demo may have kicked off with a skydiving extravaganza, but it seems the company couldn’t quite resist some snark directed at Apple. Speaking of how the head-worn computer terminal allows users to check information naturally, rather than get obsessed in what’s happening on their smartphone display, Google opted to demonstrate the difference in approaches with a frustratedly-tapping iPhone user.

No specific mention of the iPhone was made, naturally, but the message was clear: Project Glass lets you keep interacting with those around you, rather than burying you in a screen. Ironically, Google had just been showing how Android 4.1 Jelly Bean pulls in natural search queries, Siri-style, earlier in its IO keynote.

Still, there are some similar themes – Google was keen to point out how much Jelly Bean’s new features cut down on the time you’re using your device and increase the time you actually get to use the data. Google will offer the first public access to Project Glass in early 2013 in the shape of the Explorer Edition priced at $1,500 for IO attendees.

Project Glass unleashes the iPhone snark is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’ve been wondering when non-Googlers could get their hands on Project Glass in earnest, and now we know: the company is opening up pre-orders for Glass Explorer Edition, a developer version of its heads-up display glasses. How much it’s changed from the prototypes isn’t yet known, but Google has said that it’s been steadily working on refining the hardware along with the software. Sadly, the first crack at the wearable technology isn’t coming to the broader masses just yet. Orders are only available to Google I/O attendees, and they cost a pretty hefty $1,500 for their release sometime next year.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Google unveils $1,500 Project Glass Explorer Edition, takes pre-orders for 2013 only at Google I/O originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week the folks at Google dropped quite a few users out of a blimp to land on the Moscone Center for Google I/O wearing Project Glass – then they explained how they did it. This process included several different components that will be much more compact in the future, with the microphone, several sensors, and connections being rather large and bulky right this moment. This process included bicycle flips, running down the side of a building, and a couple more hardcore sports actions, so the glasses were also attached a bit more securely to each users face than they would have been otherwise.

In the demonstration after the big drop, it was revealed that the display is not in front of your eye when you use Project Glass, not in front of it. The camera lines up with the eye line of the user so that moments can be captured from the user’s perspective, while the design philosophy behind this project remained “ridiculously light.” Of course the units used on the air drop were certainly prototypes, while the final product will “weigh less than mini-sunglasses.”

As the device has been tested over the past few weeks, Google revealed that they found that the units would not only have to be light, but incredibly sturdy as well. Communication with images is set at the heart of this project, with the capture of fleeting moments being one of the primary activity of users in test form thus far. A first person point of view is being pushed here, and noone is safe, not even you shooting a terrible shot in a game of pool – beware!

Stay tuned all week for the rest of our I/O 2012 coverage and head to the Android portal as well to stay up to date on the mobile world of Google!

Project Glass gets demo product blast at I/O is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.